Birmingham hailing quintet Swim Deep announces their fifth studio album, Hum - out June 19 via Submarine Cat Records - and share the record's first single, ‘Pieces Of You’.
‘Pieces Of You’ is a defiant cut of alternative rock: roaring with clouds of distortion that bring a bite and rawness to its chiming melodies. The band also announce a run of dates across the UK, including two shows at London’s iconic and endangered Moth Club, with tickets on sale next week.
In the video for ‘Pieces Of You’, the band struggle to plant a flag emblazoned with their original logo in the muddy soil of the rainy English countryside. “It looks like Band of Brothers or some kind of army faction struggling to plant the victory flag in the ground,” says keyboardist James Balmont. “That, for me, really sums this album – we’ve been through this struggle, and now we’ve all come together to plant this very victorious feeling.”
Listen to ‘Pieces Of You’ on the Premier League playlist.
Fresh and inspired from a sold-out tour across Thailand and China in December, and with an unexpected line-up change: Hum is the work of a group rejuvenated, driven by their innate passion for music – even when the going gets tough – and sounding more confident than ever, whilst juggling the challenges of maintaining a grassroots indie band on their fifth album.
Speaking on the track, lead singer Austin “Ozzy” Williams adds: “I had found a new writing partner at the full-time bar job: there stood J.J. Buchanan by the barrels of beer kegs we were hauling. A sharp songwriter and a soaring guitarist, who brought something fresh to this song and the whole sonic landscape that would shape ‘Hum’.
As Williams and Buchanan began writing together, the songs started pouring out of them – a factor behind the gap between the band’s fourth studio album There’s A Big Star Outside and Hum being the shortest between albums in Swim Deep’s history. Reuniting with that album’s producer, Bill Ryder-Jones (who also joined them as touring guitarist for shows last year) the band allowed themselves to finesse and develop the sound they’d dug into on their fourth full-length release, sprinkling in nods to ‘90s grunge and alternative rock, instead of changing lanes as had been the band’s tendency between records in the past.
Thematically, too, Hum continues the life journey of There’s A Big Star Outside, which captured a transformational period for Williams – preparing for the arrival of his first child, but also the departure of his wife’s father. The songs on Hum detail the aftermath of that spell, exploring loss, family and our responsibilities to those we build a life with. “I’ve now got someone to inspire,” he explains. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, your dad works at a bar to make rent, but this is what he actually does, this is what the dream is, and we’ll all live on it together. That’s the ethos on this album.”
With Hum, Swim Deep turn struggle into momentum and personal upheaval into collective uplift. It’s the band’s heaviest, most adventurous, and most uplifting album in years – and the sound of a band still chasing the dream with conviction, but now with something deeper at stake.
